A Different Shade of Red
by Perchance A Primrose
Summary: Roxanne Weasley has never felt this way in her life. She never dreamed that one person could feel so many emotions as one time. But as she awaits the opening of the curtain, the slippers on her feet aren't the only rubies on her mind.


Roxanne Weasley took a deep breath. She couldn't believe that this was really happening. She was really doing this. Who was she kidding; she had been doing things that she couldn't believe since she had gotten there. She had gone from serious, smart and talented Roxanne to feisty, sarcastic, magnificent Roxie. They had laughed when she had gotten accepted to W.A.D.A saying that she was never going to make it and that she was going to be back in Daddy's arms in a few weeks crying about how she wasn't good enough but here she was and clearly she was about to prove to all of them that she was good enough. It hadn't been hard to prove to everyone else but everyone else was not the Weasley family.

Although her family was loving and affectionate, they weren't exactly normal or anything close to it. They didn't believe that Roxanne really was meant to be a star; they all thought that she was just a bit crazy with a pipe dream. Well everyone except for her best friend, James. He had always told her that she could do whatever she wanted and was the one who had convinced her to apply to go to W.A.D.A. But Roxanne wasn't sure that he could accept her now. Because he was a full blood Weasley through and through and the Weasleys tended not to be the most accepting bunch when it came to each other. With other people, they didn't really mind but their own was a different story.

"Alright Rox, I want to see you go out there and kick some ass!" Zane patted her on the butt as he walked away, His saunter looking even more absurd in the scarecrow costume he currently wore. Zane's American accent still sounded strange to her after all these years. After all they had been friends since they had started at W.A.D.A. when they were twelve. That was the youngest that they took kids. They said that it did them good to go to another wizarding school before going to the Wizarding Academy of the Dramatic Arts. Zane Thompson was her best friend of course he hadn't replaced James but more so played the part of James in his absence. Like an understudy who played the part completely different from the main character.

James and Zane, they were so similar and yet so different. They both loved Quidditch and had a talent for annoying the hell out of most people. They both had ego's the size of Russia and knew that they could get any girl they tried for. But they could be so incredibly different at the same time. James pranked everyone in sight and Zane thought that pranks were childish and dumb. Zane would get mad over the littlest things but he would be over it in days while James would get mad over little things and not speak to the person he was mad at for weeks. That was what worried Roxie; she wasn't sure how James or any of the rest of her family would accept it.

She stood in the wing of the giant stage in the amphitheater sized auditorium known as The Big One at W.A.D.A. Everyone knew that you were no one at W.A.D.A until you made it to a show on The Big One but after you did, you might as well be famous. Once you made a decent part on that stage, you were royalty for the rest of your time at the school.

But in five minutes, little Roxanne Alicia Weasley was going to become Princess Roxie Weasley and she was scared shitless. Not for any normal reason but because of the feather light footsteps she could hear coming toward her.

"Are you ready?" Her breath was hot on Roxie's ear, sending shivers up and down her spine. She could feel the fluffy pink tulle ball gown scratch against her hand. Turning toward the voice, her knees almost buckled at the sight of her piercing green eyes.

Ruby Peters had amazed Roxie since their first day of class together. The redhead just had a hauteur about her that made you know that she had talent and a lot of it. After their first musical theatre class, Roxie was so sure that she was never going to win against this girl, she was just too good. She could sing, she could dance and she could act her way out of a paper bag, not to mention she looked like a supermodel with her perfect porcelain skin and stupendously long legs. Roxie looked down with a frown; at the moment those beautiful legs were hidden under yards and yards of bedazzled tulle and silk.

A slight sparkle caught her eye and Roxie looked down at her own mocha colored legs that ended in scarlet slippers. A smile spread across her face as she remembered that she had finally won.

"Yeah, I'm ready." She turned back to face the red head whose perfect curls were a completely different shade of red from the infamous Weasley red but all the same was just as beautiful. Her green eyes sparkled like emeralds in the stage lights and Roxie decided in a split second that it didn't matter what her family thought. So, in true Weasley fashion, Roxie Weasley acted on her instinct and pressed her perfectly glossed lips to Ruby's.

They broke apart only as the stage manager, Avan was threatening both of their lives if Ruby didn't get inside the bubble that would carry her down to the stage. Roxie could feel under all of the make-up that her cheeks were flushed and she felt like one of the thousands of bubbles that would accompany Ruby as she floated down onto the stage. That feeling didn't leave her for the next two hours.

Everything went perfect from the opening of the curtain to her own final bow that is until she saw them.

The Weasleys. All twenty four of them were sitting in the first row, dead center. Or at least as close to dead center as a group of twenty four could get. James was sitting on the end as she came off stage with an amused smile across his face and Roxie got a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach because she knew that somehow he knew. He knew her secret and she was terrified. After all of the hugs, kisses and congratulations, Roxie finally let herself be pulled away by her best friend.

She led him into her dressing room which was covered in flowers of all types and colors. He unceremoniously threw himself onto one of the small settees that were in the room. "How long?" He asked.

"What are you talking about?" Roxie tried to hide her shock. How could he have possibly known? No one at school even knew! And they would know if someone else knew because news travelled around W.A.D.A faster than the plague on rats.

"Roxanne," He picked a red rose out of the closest basket and twirled it between his fingers. "Have you ever heard the saying, if you can see the audience, they can see you?" He smiled slyly at her as she paled. She had always hated the front curtain spot on the right wing side because she felt like she could see the entire left side of the audience. And from that spot, you could see the very last spot in the first row. The spot where James had been sitting. "You know, I can't say that I disagree with you. She is very attractive and I can't lie and say that I'm surprised."

He smirked as he tucked the flower behind his ear. For once in her life, Roxanne Weasley was speechless. Out of all of the ways that she had thought James might react, none of them were anything close to this. "W-W-What?" She choked.

"Oh come on, Roxie, do you think that I haven't noticed that you've never had a girl who was a friend unless you were practically fawning over her. You've never even seemed slightly interested in boys and you've sure as hell never been very good at being a girl. It wouldn't have been hard for anyone who really knows you to figure out if they tried."

"You mean you're not mad?" Still shaken, she asked.

"Mad?" He chuckled, "Why would I be mad? Because you're different? For Merlin's sake, Rox, I would never try and change you!"

And for some reason, Roxie knew that James wasn't lying. Maybe it was because she knew that he couldn't really lie that well or maybe it was just because she knew that he was telling the truth. Her family would love her the way that she was no matter who she was or who she loved. They would learn to love them just because she loved them.

Actually, that probably wasn't true, no matter how much they loved each other, the Weasley would never be able to accept Scorpius Malfoy but that was a different story.

**A/N: So what do you think? **

**I've never written Roxanne before but when I saw these lovely prompts (audition, ruby, amuse, legs and attention) this idea popped into my head and I knew I had to write it! **

**While I was writing this, I actually got an idea for a multi chap that involves Roxie, Zane and of course Ruby at W.A.D.A. so if you like this and want some more RoxRuby than you should tell me in the form of a review!**

**Lots of love!**

**-Prim**


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